During the 2000 contest season, I decided to make use of the
solar cycle peak to try my hand at some single band contesting
on 28 MHz. I pulled down my 80 m beam from its perch at 36 m,
and replaced it with a long boom 7 element beam. I erected a
separate vertically polarised spotting antenna, and integrated
three receivers into a single switching system to allow the
operator to look for multipliers while receiving. I also
added switching systems to allow the operator to select any
combination of four Yagis, pointing in three different
directions.

I had good success in the CQ World Wide DX Contests. On RTTY
in September, I came within 1% of doubling the existing world
28 MHz record, despite software problems. So far, no other
comparable claim has surfaced, and it looks like a win is on
the cards. On SSB, things didn't work quite as well, and I
ended up claiming third place behind ZX5J and 5X1Z. On CW,
it again looks like a convincing win. Conditions were not the
greatest, and although my claimed score is above the world
record, it's probably too close to stand up to the scrutiny of
The Committee.

However, the station work and the contests themselves,
combined with three university exams over the same period,
left me feeling just a touch overwhelmed. There were many
little niggling issues that didn't get addressed in that time,
and that were crying out for attention.

It was against this backdrop that I had to think about the
ARRL 10 m Contest. Its early December date placed it just after
CQWW CW; perfect from a hardware point of view, but too close to
have fully recovered from the contest season. I really didn't
relish the thought of dedicating another weekend to radio. On
the other hand, I would have loved to let the station flex its
muscles and possibly even leave a new record that might stand
until the next cycle.

Enter Koji Tahara, JM1CAX. Koji is now better known as JY9NX,
but in other times he sported the callsign ZS6CAX and was audible
on ground wave from my place. Koji is still studying through a
South African university, and periodically has to stop by to deal
with study arrangements. It just so happened that he casually
enquired about doing the ARRL 10 m contest, just as I was coming
to the conclusion that the contest would not happen. This was
the solution to my problem! I quickly hammered out an agreement
with Koji. These days, hosting a guestop is no laughing matter,
as I live in the tiny little house where the station is, but Koji
had been looking for an excuse to quit smoking, and we both thought
we could coexist happily for the weekend. He preferred to use
the Pretoria Contest Club callsign ZS6Z rather than his own ZS6CAX.
I was happy, as long as he was prepared to send everyone a bureau
QSL at his expense. Everything was set and done.

During the SSB contest, my FT1000MP's T/R relay had died on me.
It was the first glitch with this wonderful radio after four years.
I ordered replacement parts from Yaesu USA, but these were
mistakenly shipped by air mail instead of express. By the time
they addressed the problem, it was too late. I ended up doing
the CW contest with the broken relay, but it was not the
best fun I've ever had. I wrote to Koji, and he managed to arrange
replacement relays out of Germany. They arrived in Jordan just a
few days before his departure.

When Koji arrived at my place on Friday night, we spent some
time doing dual on the station layout. Koji was rather the worse
for wear, as his flight had been delayed and he had spent more
than a full day in transit. I could see his eyes glazing over
as I explained the use of the PTT-interlocked audio switching
between the three receivers...

The Orion OR2800P controller for the rotator on the big Yagi
also chose this moment to die. It was running haywire all over
the place, and the only way to turn the antenna ended up being to
look at it through the window and turn off the power when the
beam came to its desired bearing. This exercise demanded some
agility, as one has to cock one's head almost down to the carpet
to be able to see the beam.

We spent the evening looking for the contest rules and finding
the relay's location in the workshop manual, and Koji selected
some Japanese delicacies from the menu of a local Oriental
restaurant. We also had to install CT on my computer and
get it running with the DVP. Koji got to bed just before
midnight, while I slaved away into the early
hours of the morning to replace the relay. Just removing
the relevant unit and replacing the relay itself took
the better part of an hour, but at least the repair
seemed to do the trick. I also set up some targets for
him to chase. We'd spent considerable effort trying to locate
the records for the contest, but without success. ARRL Contest
Branch couldn't help, as they were apparently in the process
of re-doing the records. However, we checked the results for
the past four years, and hoped that nothing bigger had survived
from the previous solar cycle.

Koji got up around 05:30 local time (03:30 UTC). The band
was already up and running, so he started up shortly afterwards
to the east. By the time I was conscious again, he was in full
flight. Koji's eyes stretched when I showed him the target:
3850 QSOs. No single operator had made much over 3600 before,
and the skepticism was not hard to detect in his features.
However, I pre-empted any contemplated lack of cooperation by
simply informing Koji that he wouldn't leave the farm alive
if he didn't make it. Fortunately, Koji isn't over-burdened
with political correctness, and managed a wry smile in
response.

I spent most of the day reading and sleeping, while QSOs
continued to accumulate. Now and then, I would bring a cup
of coffee, some food and the odd pat on the back. I would
also bring the rate sheet up to date, and comment on his
performance relative to target. Despite some early finger
trouble, he was clearly getting the hang of operating all the
buttons. Conditions were terrible, and it was tough going.
By the end of Saturday, with 18 hours of operating in the
log, Koji was 179 QSOs behind the target. He had been
slipping behind the hourly targets throughout the day, and there
didn't seem to be much that he could have done to improve.

During the night, I decided not to revise the target, but rather
to wait and see what the morning would bring. He again started
just before 06:00 local time, and by 10:00 local I was able to
re-assess the targets. I decided to keep the hourly targets for
the Sunday intact, but to adjust the cumulative targets downwards
by 179 to compensate for the losses on Saturday. Koji still
seemed somewhat apprehensive at the thought of having to make
almost 3700 QSOs, but kept plugging away. After the first hour,
he matched my target exactly. The motivational improvement was
noticeable. In the following four hours, he managed to improve
on the revised target by first a dozen, then 30, then 80, then 150.
I drew a bold black line through the reduced targets, and informed
Koji that he was back on the orginal target: 3850 QSOs. I also
drew thick black lines through the continental records as they
tumbled; first Oceania and Europe, later Africa. Only the
Americas remained.

Two hours later, he was on track with the original targets. I
called him at 23:45 local time, just when his allowed 36 hours of
operating time expired. Koji was exhausted but jubilant. The
multipliers were somewhat behind schedule, but with the QSO points
being what they were, he'd passed P49V's score by just about 2%.
According to the sources we had, this score seems to be the world
record. It's hard to tell whether 2% is enough to survive the
log checking process, but the heady feeling of beating the world
record under indifferent conditions, and of breaking 3 million
points, is not a total waste of time!

During the next few days, we watched the 3830 Reflector to see
if any competing scores would surface. I noticed with some
amusement that Koji had remarked on my "considerable pressure
for a good result" in his posting. He'd obviously taken the
death threat seriously enough...

Perhaps this is the way I should be contesting. I managed to
read several hundred pages, rest enough for a change, spend much
time in the kitchen, listen to classical music for several hours,
go to church and even spend time chatting with my neighbour,
and still saw a world record crumbling in the process. Maybe
this guest-op thing is not such a bad idea! It's almost as
much fun as the autopilot in the C402 that I regularly fly.

Bernie van der Walt ZS4TX and I are planning a Multi-Two effort
in the ARRL DX contest next year (2001). That's another pastime
I haven't tried. Maybe I should wait until I've tried that before
I decide what to do with my contesting future. Perhaps that's
even better!

As for the feedback from Koji on the contest hardware: He claims
that he found six multipliers on the third receiver while transmitting,
and that around 20 multipliers were found on the second receiver while
listening simultaneously to the run frequency. Those don't sound like
big numbers, but with a total multiplier of 250, they constitute almost
10% of the total score! Without them, Koji would have ended up
well short of several of the continental record. Even with inadequate
isolation, the spotting beam was clearly making a big contribution.
Some development work remains, as none of this stuff can be bought off
the shelf, but at least we seem to be on the right track.